LOLJHB wrote: on April 29, 2023 #37
Not wanting to get involved in the pips/anti debate, but if I may hark back to this question ! Players of a certain age may remember a British guy by the name of John Hilton who became European Singles Champion in 1980 "Despite being a relatively unknown amateur player" as Wikipedia puts it. While it would be nice to regard this as a Boris Becker/Emma Raducanu moment, it was not really the case ! John Hilton used antispin on one side of his bat and a fairly spinny rubber on the other - both rubbers were black, and he twiddled frequently during rallies. Simply put, his opponents usually had no clue which rubber the last shot had been played with and consequently what sort of spin was on the ball. It is also alleged that Hilton developed a technique of "squeaking" his shoes on the floor as he hit the ball, in order to mask the slightly different sounds of the two rubbers - not sure I totally buy into that one. The two-colour rule was brought in in 1983, and this chap and those who subsequently copied him were a large part of the reason why .
You start your post claiming Not wanting to get involved in the pips/anti debate, but then you go on to write in detail about how you feel about John Hilton. . Pretty hilarious